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The Reader

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About this listen

 The million-copy international bestseller

'A masterly work. Read this and read it again' - Observer

'A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of German conscience' - Independent

'Examines the nature of understanding and tests the limits of forgiveness' - Times

For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems.

Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realise that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret.

The Reader is an international bestseller and a true modern classic, the essential Holocaust novel, examining the gap between Germany's pre- and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence.


'For generations to come people will be marvelling over The Reader' - Evening Standard Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Crime

Critic reviews

Deeply moving, sensitive enough to make me wince, a Holocaust novel, but light years away from the common run (Ruth Rendell)
Schlink's extraordinary novel The Reader is a compelling meditation on the connections between Germany's past and its present, dramatised with extreme emotional intelligence as the story of a relationship between the narrator and an older woman. It has won deserved praise across Europe for the tact and power with which it handles its material, both erotic and philosophical
Leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart . . . a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is the German novel I have been waiting for: it objectifies the Holocaust and legitimately makes all mankind responsible (Sir Peter Hall)
For generations to come, people will be reading and marvelling over Bernhard Schlink's The Reader
Haunting and unforgettable
[Schlink] explores the conflict between generations, wrestling with collective guilt and individual motivation. He examines the nature if understanding and tests the limits of forgiveness. He does these things with honesty, restraint and a moral precision both unsettling and rare. The result is as compelling as any thriller
All stars
Most relevant
Everyone should read this. It's very deep and explores how reading itself matters so such to human interaction. Delved the German psychosis and impacts of pre and post WW2 on its citizens. The ramifications of Nazism and it's warped values. The final section is a masterpiece and worth the journey.

How the dead judge the living

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This is the second book I've read by the author and each has been excellent. The narrator added to the next through his performance too.

Great Story and Excellent Narrator

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Told through the eyes of (what you can only imagine is Schlick himself, a lawyer and judge) who sees himself later in the book. A mature read and hyper complex for someone who didn’t grow up in Germany at the time, I find it a great insight into another world.

A brilliant insight into German psychology

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I am guilty of watching the film first this was my h deeper and you can tell the author has thought deeply about the connotations of the aftermath and is very smart and well educated. I enjoyed it very much

Very thought provoking and deeper than I expected

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Tells a sad story, but life is sad, as we unfortunately find out as we grow old.
Well worth a listen, Kate Winslet thoroughly deserved her Oscar for her performance in the movie.

Melancholic

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